Death Sentence From Beyond The Brickwork
by 90Flo
Summary: Young man, his fiance and their friend visit old, abandond and scary manor.. Why there's working middle aged maid and why she knows about young mans little journey to the house?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue 

It was nice, summer evening. Sun was just setting when old, beat up car stopped in front of huge manor. It was old, neglected, but also impressive house. It has big garden at the backyard. Whole sight told that there was no one in here for good couple of years... So empty and lonely. Who would live in a place like this? Away from city and strangely scary... br BR

Young couple and their friend got out from the car and looked uneasy at the manor.

"You're sure you want to go inside with me?" young man said, looking at his fiance. She smiled weakly looking back at him. br BR

"It might look scary outside, but in the end it's your family's house, right? I want to see this famous house." she walked towards the house. He just stared at her puzzled. br BR

"I'm going with you, guys!" friend of young couple yelled. br BR

Three of them went up the steps and before they got the chance to look for keys, these big, wooden doors were opened and they saw middle aged women, with dark complexion. br BR

"Welcome home, young master." three of them exchanged surprised glances. She bowed her head, opened the door more, letting them in.

"I'm sorry, miss, but I didn't know someone is still living here." br BR

"Oh, yes. It may look like a mess, but I still work in here. Like my grandmother and mother did." br BR

"Even if no one lives here?" br BR

"Oh, yes." br BR

"So how did you know I'm the owner.. I mean I'm from the family?" br BR

"We got a call, young master." she bowed her head again. br BR

"Hey, hey! That's a great place for your wedding guys!" br BR

"Hey! You're right!" girl exclaimed looking around the hall. She entered big living room which looked rich and pretty tidy. br BR

"Some more people should work here and it will get back to life." she muttered. br BR

"Hey, guys. I'll get what I need, okay?" 'young master' said to his fiance and his friend. br BR

"Okay! We'll wait here!" his friend said. The two of them started exploring the living room while 'young master' headed up the stairs to the second floor. br BR

br BR

"Wow! This place is really pretty!" young woman said, amazed by every single thing she saw. br BR

"We hope that after wedding, young master will like to move in here." br BR

"We?" the maid only stared at young woman and it gave her chills. "Um.." she looked around and one of many portraits caught her eye. "Whose that woman?" she made her way to the painting and stared at it. br BR

"It's wife of our master. 100 years ago he built this house for her as wedding present"

"She's beautiful..." br BR

"Oh, yes. She is..." maid smiled broadly.

br BR br BR

Meanwhile, young man was in one of many rooms that were in this house, looking for some object. His mother called him about it and he had to bring it to her, even if he hated the idea of returning to this house.

br BR

i You're finally here /i he heard whispered and frightened, looked around. i No one... /i br BR

He gave up on looking for an object and escaped the room. On the corridor he noticed slim figure, wearing white, torn dress. He took deep breath and decided to see who it was. br BR

"E-excuse me, b-bu-" br BR

"You're finally here..." the woman said and looked at him with her cold, empty gaze. He screamed and started running away. br BR

He run down the stairs and spotted his fiance. br BR

"Let's get out of here!" he yelled and tried to pull her towards the door, but she managed to escape from his grip. br BR

"What is wrong with you! We just came here. And it's nice in here.. Maybe we stay here for night, huh? It's dark outside already.. "she suggested. br BR

"You're kidding me! I won't stay here! No way!" br BR

"So just wait for your friend? He went somewhere.. " she looked around trying to remember where he went. br BR

"Do as you wish! I'm leaving!" he ran out, not even giving her chance to respond. He got into the car and drove away, leaving his fiance and friend behind.. br BR br BR


	2. Chapter 2

It was one of that hot days on July when it's quiet troublesome to be in Tokyo. Despite that heat, Taniyama Mai was running as fast as she could through the crowded streets of Tokyo, to SPR office. She was already late. i Like always. /i She entered small building and run up to the second floor. She burst through the door and small bell announced her arrival.

"I'm sorry for being late!" she stopped in the middle of the office, panting heavily, trying to catch some breath. She expected cold greeting from her boss, Kazuya Shibuya, who often sat outside his office while there was no one or he wanted tea and had to get it by himself. This time she didn't hear him. She looked around empty office and turned her head to the side.

"Ah! Good afternoon,Taniyama-san! You're already here!" she heard familiar voice and then noticed none other than Yasuhara-san. "Do you want some tea or maybe something else, Taniyama-san?"

"Good afternoon! Yes, iced tea,please." she smiled slightly. She put her bag near her desk and went to the kitchenette.

"Where are everyone? Naru should be here already.." Mai stated.

"Shibuya-san and Lin-san left earlier.. They didn't say where they were going though." Yasuhara handed Mai her iced tea and they want to sit on a couch in the office.

"Oh, well. At least he didn't see me late." she smiled. Just then the doors opened and little bell rang. Both Yasuhara and Mai looked at the door. First entered Naru and after him Lin.

"Mai, tea. My office." Naru said heading straight to his office, not looking at Yasuhara or Mai.

"Yes sir!" she got up quickly and headed to the kitchenette. i He could be at least for once nice.. What about simple 'hi' or 'how are you?' /i Mai sighed, looking out the window i I guess that will never happen. Well, that would be miracle/i she thought. As the water was ready she made tea and went with it to Naru's office.

"Here's your tea, Naru!" she said cheerfully, putting it on his desk. He didn't say anything as he was reading some documents. Mai shook her head and went out the door. She sat on a couch and wanted to take a sip from her iced tea, when suddenly someone burst through the door so unexpectedly that she spilled it all over her, scaring her a little.

"Great.." she mumbled looking at her shirt and skirt, covered in fresh stains. Yasuhara rushed towards the man who just entered the office whit such a hurry. He was wearing black suit and looked at least for 25 year old.

"Good afternoon. How ca-"

"I've got no time kid! Is it Shibuya Psychic Research office?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, b-"

"Good. I need to talk with your boss then. Now!." Mai walked over to Yasuhara looking at the men with wide eyes. To SPR came often different people, but never there was someone behaving like this. He seemed to be in a hurry and he was looking around nervously.

"Are you here for an investigation?" Mai inquired. The man glared at her, not answering the question.

"Taniyama-san, please inform Shibuya-san that we've got new client."

"Okay." Mai disappeared in his office and then she went to the kitchenette making some tea. After a few minutes Naru appeared from his office and eyed his new client before speaking to him.

While Mai was busy with preparing tea's and Yasuhara went to help her, Naru asked man his name and where he got information about their office.

The man, Aki Takagi explained that he had problem with one of his families houses. He said he was looking for someone to exorcise his house, but couldn't find anyone good enough and accidentally he found informations about SPR.

Just then Yasuhara and Mai reappeared from the kitchenette with trays of tea things. Mai served tea just as Naru asked his question.

"So what exactly brought you to our office, Mr Takagi."

The men sighed and looked at Naru. "This house is hunted. It's - It's not simple house though. It has long history and is full of mysteries." The men fell silent and looked around nervously.

"Hunted?" Mai asked.

"And what's so special about your house Mr Takagi?" Naru asked.

"I'm not living in that house. That would be a.. suicide." he trailed off. Naru sighed and looked at the men.

"Please tell us then what's the problem."

"I.. I went there week ago with my friend and my fiance. I got a call to get something. And there was this maid. She was weird. She said she was working there and she knew I was coming." he grew silent and his expression changed to petrified one. "I left them with her and went upstairs. I heard someone's voice and .. I decided to leave. I really have bad memories from that house... every time I think about it I-"

"What happened there?" Naru inquired, not caring if he's client was saying still something or not.

"I walked out and saw women, wearing white dress. She.. she was strange.. I ran away.. I couldn't find my friend-I didn't even care about him right then. My fiance didn't want to leave with me so I.." he looked down, regret painted all over his face.

"You left them there?" Mai stared at him with wide eyes.

"No, she.. returned the next day."

"Mr Takigi.. I'm really sorry, but we're not searching for people if that's what you want us to do." Naru said calmly.

"No,no! That's not it! That house is hunted! Many woman disappeared there, while mans died! This house is growing by itself! It don't need anyone to build more and more rooms anymore!" he burst.

"Grow by itself? What do you mean by it, Mr Takigi?" Yasuhara inquired. Takigi turned his gaze to Yasuhara and calmed a little bit.

"No one know anymore how much rooms there is. It's.. gaining new rooms still."

"Maybe someone's just living there and building on his own." Mai shrugged. The men looked at her sternly and continued.

"I got many weird calls since I left the house. Someone is calling, but never saying anything. It's really freaking me out.. and my fiance."

"Your fiance?" Naru repeated when the woman fell silent for several long moments men shook his head slightly. "She keep on talking about the house and she seems to be so distant.. she's not the same. She says things about the house I didn't know!"

"Is there anything else?" Takigi hesitated before nodding slightly. "My friend haven't came back still. No one knows where he is."

Naru looked at him patiently waiting for him to continue.

"I called him and heard some kind of scream.. I don't know what it was exactly. It wasn't him. Then woman voice... I couldn't make out what she was saying.. the most scary part is.. I thought I was seeing things, but .. from my cell phone flow out blood."

"Blood?" Naru raised his eyebrow. Takigi took out his cell phone and showed there was indeed dried blood. Naru looked at the men.

"When you called your friend?"

"Yesterday. That's when I started looking for help. My fiance disappeared yesterday."

Naru stared at him for a few moments before sighing slightly. "If it meets your approval, our office will start 4 day investigation of your manor in two days. If we find anything abnormal about that house, we will continue investigation until we get rid of the problem or it stop." he said finally.

Takigi looked at Naru with relief written on his face. "Thank you so much!" he stood up and bowed his head.

"Yea, right." Mai smiled brightly. Naru went to his office as Yasuhara and Mai were asking important questions their new client, who was not pleased at all to talk with ordinary assistants.

"My assistant will tell you what we will require while instigating and what should be done. We need also localisation of the manor." Naru said as he stood up. "Mai, Yasuhara."


	3. Chapter 3

Before SPK could even think about leaving to investigate the house, they had to prepare information about it. Naru called everyone and told Mai and Yasuhara to find some information about hunted house.

Mai and Yashuara immediately went to their work as their client left. Mai was searching old newspaper archives in search for some 'mysterious phenomena'. She waited for results to load and sighed heavily when she saw at least five pages of long articles. All to check.

"I got something." Yasuhara said with a big smile on his face.

"You did?" Mai raised her eyebrows in surprise how it easy went for him.

"According to this article, troubles with the manor started before it was built." Yasuhara scanned the article and looked at Mai. "Seems like this case will be really interesting." He smirked.

"Have you found anything?" Naru spoke as he walked out from his office for the first time since their client left.

"Yes, Shibuya-san." Naru nodded his head and waited for Yasuhara to continue. "There were troubles as they were building the house. Construction crew worked 24/7, what wasn't the problem at all. The ground made people go mad. A teamster... killed couple of constructors and then left. Police found him later in a bar, but he claimed he didn't remember anything from breakfast till he came to the bar." He scanned the text again

"While building that house there were others accidents like..

one man was decapitated by the falling glass while other one choked on a piece of apple." Mai gasped when she heard that.

"What about you Mai? Found anything?" Naru turned to her and she looked at the screen and shook her head 'no'. She wrote other keyword and there were couple of articles that might fit in the story.. after reading them.. maybe. Naru sat in the armchair and read some notes Yasuhara did, while Mai was searching the articles.

She wanted to give up, but one thing caught her eye.

Article like every other she read. She stared at the article and photograph of the house. Looked like the one from the photograph.. but was it really about it? She read it hastily and stopped at the mention of 23 people who disappeared in that house.

"Did you find something?" Naru asked from the armchair, breaking her concentration and making her jump slightly in surprise.

"I don't know.. It seems .. I don't know.." she looked back at the article uncertainly 'That could happen in every other house.. In the end it doesn't look exactly like the one that man showed us... Maybe that's not related She thought. Naru stared at her for a moment. He sighed and asked, "What did you find. "

"It might not be related.." Mai narrowed her eyes "..maybe.." she stared at the article again as looking for an answer.

"Mai?"

Mai jumped at the sound of Naru's voice coming close from the side of her desk. She turned her head and he stood there with his arms crossed looking at her with his cold stare.

"Huh? What are you doing here?" she looked at him confused since last time she looked at him he was sitting on the armchair reading the notes.

"I see.. So you've learned how to sleep with your eyes open." He said raising an eyebrow "I'm here since two minutes when you didn't finished your sentence. What did you find?"

Mai titled her head to the side, still confused, but immidiately focused her mind on the article.

She pointed at it. Naru glanced at the article briefly.

"I don't know why, but to me it might be related." She said with confusion still on her face. Yasuhara walked over to them and also read the article.

"Shibuya-san.. I agree with Taniyama-san." Mai raised her eyebrows at Yasuhara. "Takagi-san said there were woman disappearing." He pointed at the screen. '18 woman and and 5 man disappeared..' She looked at Naru, he once again decided to look at the article.

"..Last victim was with gruop. After the tour was over, they realized someone was missing... The police did not find her body, but her bloody, ripped purse." Naru read. "Print it. It might be useful somehow later."

Naru went back to his office and returned minutes later, as Mai and Yasuhara were adding what they found to the case file.

"Mai, tea." Naru commanded as he sat down in the armchair

"Coming." She replied going to the kitchenette.

"Others should be here soon." Naru added.

Just as Mai returned with tea for Naru, doors opened and little chime attached to the doors rang, announcing arrival of rest of SPK. Mai offered them drinks. Everyone agreed on ice tea. Yasuhara offered Mai his help. There were almost everyone. Masako couldn't come since she had something important to deal with.

As Yasuhara and Mai served everyone their tea, Naru decided to tell everyone about the case.

"Our new investigation will take place 50 km away from Tokyo. There's a hunted manor as our client said. This manor is pretty big from what I saw on the photograph and we will need to exorcise this house, if there is anything to exorcise."

Naru looked towards Yasuhara, waiting for him to tell everyone what he found about this house.

"We searched old archives today and found some interesting information. However, that were murders in the manor, weird behavior of people working there. We also got dairy of landlady. From what I read they never finished building the manor during her or her husbands life. Their daughter disappeared one day in the kitchen, when servant left for a while to get her something to eat."

"So we got here some hard work to do." Bou-san said as Yasuhara handed him his notes along with photograph of the house.

"Before the house was closed for good, there were often groups of tourists visited that manor, but after last disappearance of one woman they closed the house. Our client went there last time and before he left in hurry he noticed weird behavior of his fiance and disappearance of his friend." Naru said and took a sip from his tea.

"Isn't it more like a police job? All this disappearances?" Ayako said with a sigh.

"We've got not much information about the manor. All we got is what we found and this dairy." Yasuhara replied.

"That might be interesting case.." John said for the first time he entered the office.

"Well, I've got time so I will help in this investigation." Ayako said shrugging.

"Likewise. I'm free for the next week" Bou-san said with enthusiasm heard in his voice.

"If everything is clear, we leave tomorrow at 7 am from here." Naru said. Just then Lin appeared in the room. "Lin, how's the equipment check?"

"It will take a some more time, but with help I might finish it earlier." Naru nodded and looked at others.

"So, I can help with the equipment." Yasuhara said with smile.

"Good. Then we'll meet up tomorrow's morning." Naru said and left to his office as others decided to leave and prepare for investigation.


End file.
